Security systems are normally employed in vehicles to prevent theft and damage to the vehicle. Many of these systems selectively allow remote or "panic" siren activation if a threatening situation is encountered as the owner approaches or enters the vehicle. The loud noise emanating from the activated siren allows the owner to warn away or frighten potential assailants. While these prior systems selectively provide such "panic" alarms, they are prone to unintentional and undesirable siren activation causing unwanted audio disturbances to the surrounding area.
Furthermore, many of these systems only allow for manual system activation and/or deactivation, requiring the vehicle owner to hold and depress certain switches on a transmitter. Such manual operation is both inconvenient and dangerous. For example, should the owner be carrying a large number of grocery bags it becomes necessary for the owner to place the bags upon the car or ground while locating and holding the transmitter. Moreover, if the owner is being pursued and must enter the vehicle quickly, the need to locate and depress certain transmitter switches might cause the owner to fail to evade the pursuers.
Moreover, many of these prior systems provide only limited alarm functionality, thereby successfully preventing or deterring only a relatively small number of thefts while being easily disconnected or deactivated by a thief and providing an alarm only when the vehicle has actually been damaged.
Many of these prior system limitations are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,867 ("the '867 patent") entitled "Vehicle Security Apparatus", which issued on Sep. 17, 1991, which is assigned to Applicant's assignee, and which is fully incorporated herein by reference. While the vehicle security apparatus described and claimed within the '867 patent provides a very useful system, some improvements which are described and claimed within this application have been added to this system in order to allow the system to be more adaptable to various user requirements and to further address many of the aforedescribed prior system limitations.